LABOR (ante). It is undoubtedly correct to divide human labor into two kinds, mental and physical; and to concede that without the one there could hardly be the other. It is only among the most laborious and industrious races that we find the most cmnprehensive and productive mental effort. That is, where the physical labor is tire most varied and The Esquhnaux are perhaps the most severely tasked by the necessity for arduous physical effort, of any race; and they are doubtless among the lowest in the order of mental accomplishment; but these facts do not disturb the propo sition, since the labor of the Esquimaux extends but in one direction—the protection and perpetuation of life. So far as the history of man has been traced, there has been found no condition of existence unaccompanied by labor, both physical and mental, the latter, certainly, in the earlier periods, devoted simply to the direction of the former towards the only absolute necessity, the sustenance of life. This brings us by way of a circle to our beginning, that mental labor must precede physical labor, while it can only increase and extend with the increase and extension of the latter. Which is to say that while a mental impression of the condition of hunger, and mental inquiry as to the existing means for allaying it, must precede the physical effort to procure such means— mental effort will not proceed beyond this point, except correlatively with the progress and extension of physical lalair. It should then be borne in mind that in considering one kind of labor we are including the other, so intimate is the relation between them; and that the ratio of mental activity is in proportion to the multiplication of the varieties of physical labor. Such knowledge as we possess of prehistoric races has been derived from existing results of their labor, naturally of the most primitive character, rough hewn implements and weapons of stone giving that period of human existence the dis tinctive title of the "stone age." This period was followed by the neolithic or new stone age. in which these implements and weapons were more highly finished and pol ished, and better adaptei to their purpose. Atter this came the discovery of the metals and what is termed the "bronze" age, since which time there has appeared to no pos sible limit to the extension of human labor, or to its resources in ways and means. As implements multiplied, wants increased, and the history of the human race is in fact a record of the w ants of man and his devices for supplying them. One such device made its appearance very early in history, that of a division of labor, by which one individual became the fisherman, another the limiter, and a third tire tailored a settlement or group —such groups having originated in the instinct of self-preservation by numbers, and in the law of the value of numbers as a factor in labor. On this principle, too, originated the soldier, or guard, whose duty it was to watch while others worked; and the mes senger, or carrier. inefficient to originate, but useful to carry out the designs of those better qualified. The exercise of labor, and particularly after this had become compara tively skillful, involved the accumulation of wealth—in stores of food, arms, clothing, or building material, which in turn aroused the sentiment of cupidity in contiguous groups of men; and this being carried to the extent of a forcible attempt at possession. resistance followed, and war, with its attendant elements of killed, wounded, and pris oners, ensued. The accumulation of prisoners must soon have become an irksome product of success, and primitive ingenuity cast about for relief from this very positive and threatening burden; and it could not have been long before the idea of the enforced labor of prisoners dawned on the minds of the conquenors in battle. From this idea, in part at least, arose the institution of slavery.
The tendency to organize, out of which springs all system, found expression in slavery from its very beginning. The earliest records and the most ancient inscriptions and mural paintings tell of slave-gangs and task-masters. and at length of the classifi cation of slaves by their duties. This was at once a simplification of labor by co-ordi nation of its processes; and a necessity to the existence of the slave-holders themselves, since the prevalence of a condition of war produced slaves in such numbers that they could not possibly have been controlled without rigid system and discipline. The time and place of the origin of slavery are unknown, 'Nearly all the ancient races practiced it, and we may well believe that it grew out of an inherent impulse in human nature, and was spontaneous among different races, whenever the conditions existed rendering it practicable. It can be traced by internal evidence to a period 3,000 years before the Christian era, though it was not until the time of the greatest prosperity of the Pheni clans that the custom of buying and selling slaves was originated—and by that remark able people. Probably in no other country did slavery reach the same condition of
development as in Rome. Obtaining the institution from Carthage, Rome soon outdid its teacher in the numerous and systematic methods by which the system was applied for the supply of real and imaginary wants. To Carthage the world was indebted for the displacement of the existing system of yeomanry farming, and the substitution a/ slave-labor in agriculture. Carthage had received the system from Phenicia, a comite• cial and manufacturing country, and had adapted it readily to the conduct of agricu• ture on an enormous scale by wealthy landholders. Rome adopted the same practice, but added to it an organization of slave-labor for the performance of official and domes tic duties, on a scale so comprehensive as never to have been since equaled in this par ticular. The Roman slave-holding system comprised two classes, public and private, the former including the slaves of the state, the latter those of individuals. The former were employed in public works—building, road-making, as rowers in the galleys, etc.; the latter were divided into two kinds—rustic, and urban or domestic. The whole number of these slaves were divided into as many as 250 different classes, each retire• settling some specific duty or employment. In the time of Sylla there are said to have been 13,000,000 slaves in Italy. The fall of the Roman empire brought about the establishment of the feudal system in Europe, while the advance of Christianity grad ually did away with institution of slavery. Meanwhile, it was not extraordinary that out of the old order of things there should have grown into existence conditions, modified. but similar to those which preceded them, which should, in turn, have exercised their just influence upon civilization. Thus, in the institution of guilds which began to be prevalent about the 12th c., we see the influence of the slave classifi cation of ancient Rome and Carthage, and the distributed labor education which resulted from the division of labor. • The institution of the guild was the protest of the laboring class against feudalism. Originating in the Anglo Saxon family system, it became intrenched behind the growing strength of Christianity, and gradually assimi lated with it all the forces that were inimical to the control of the laboring class by the feudal barons and other potentates. Through the influence of the guild hand-labor became a power, band-laborers were artists, and the golden age of manual skill arrived. In the work of the loom, in metal-working and wood-carving, in the manufacture of pottery and glass, this period has never been equaled. Artists like the Della Robbins, Ghiberti, Andrea del Sarin, and Benvenuti Cc]Hui ennobled labor. But the age became luxurious, and the masterpieces of art labor centered in a few hands.. As has ever been the case in -history, interests conflicted, wealth tended to centralize and consolidate itself, the guilds divided among themselves into plodders and those who accumulated the results of their toil, vast operations in trade became possible to those who possessed the necessary enterprise and skill, and so capital was born as a new factor in the utiliza• tion of labor, and a new enemy for the laborer to confront cad to antagonize. The influence of the new force- was speedily felt, and the tendency to exclusiveness and monopoly on the part of the wealthy awakened in the workers the idea of organization, and there grew up an independent working-class for the first time in history. Now, too, for the first time in its application to large and organized bodies of laborers, the wage question took prominence. This arose primarily from the effect upon population of the terrible plagues and famines, which, beginning about the middle of the 14th c., began to devastate Europe. The depopulation of countries resulted in a scarcity of laborers, but every attempt on the part of the latter to insure the adoption of a higher rate of wages on this account met with strenuous and persistent opposition from employers. The introduction of the factory system, and the application of power to machinery, in the manufactures, strengthened the hands of the employers, and correspondingly weakened the employed, Meanwhile, warfare was unceasing between the two, and the necessities of the case brought about the conception of the trade-union., in the latter part of the 18th c., and has continued to thrive and to combat capital ever since. The history of labor in the United States has been mainly influenced by questions of wages and hours of service, by immigration, by the introduction of the trade-union, and by the institution of negro slavery. The enormous displacement of human by machine labor, and the practical abolition of the apprentice system through foreign influence, have also largely complicated the labor question in America. For further information on these points, see TRADE-UNIONS; SLAVERY; MACHINERY; GUILDS.